IP Library Granted Patent US 11,138,992
Granted Patent B2
US 11,138,992 · App. 16/665,260 · Granted Oct 5, 2021

Voice activity detection based on entropy-energy feature

Inventor: Jizhong Liu (Shenzhen, CN)
Assignee: TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY LIMITED
G10L25/93G10L15/22G10L25/18G10L25/21G10L25/84G10L2025/937
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,138,992
App. No.
16/665,260
Granted
Oct 5, 2021
Kind
B2
Abstract

This application discloses a voice activity detection method. The method includes receiving speech data, the speech data including a multi-frame speech signal; determining energy and spectral entropy of a frame of speech signal; calculating a square root of the energy of the speech signal and/or calculating a square root of the spectral entropy of the frame of the speech signal; determining a spectral entropy-energy square root of the frame of the speech signal based on at least one of the square root of the energy and the square root of the spectral entropy; and determining that the frame of the speech signal is an unvoiced frame if the spectral entropy-energy square root of the speech signal is less than a first threshold, or that it is a voiced frame if the spectral entropy-energy square root of the speech signal is greater than or equal to the first threshold.

Claims (166)

1. A voice activity detection method, executed by a smart terminal and comprising:

receiving speech data, the speech data including a multi-frame speech signal, the multi-frame speech signal including a k th frame speech signal;

determining energy and spectral entropy of the k th frame speech signal;

calculating a square root of the energy of the k th frame speech signal and/or calculating a square root of the spectral entropy of the k th frame speech signal;

determining a spectral entropy-energy square root HE(k) of the k th frame speech signal based on at least one of the square root of the energy and the square root of the spectral entropy,

wherein the spectral entropy-energy square root HE(k) of the k th frame speech signal is determined according to HE(k)=√{square root over (|H(k)−H(0)|*E(k))}, wherein

H

(

0

)

=

1

N

l

=

1

N

H

(

l

)

,

H(k) is a spectral entropy of the k th frame speech signal, E(k) is a short-term energy of the spectral entropy of the k th frame speech signal, k is greater than N, and N represents first N frames in the multi-frame speech signal; and

determining that the k th frame speech signal is an unvoiced frame if the spectral entropy-energy square root of the k th frame speech signal is less than a first threshold, or that the k th frame speech signal is a voiced frame if the spectral entropy-energy square root of the k th frame speech signal is greater than or equal to the first threshold,

wherein the first threshold is adjusted by: multiplying a spectral entropy-energy square root average value HE(0) of first N frames and a special entropy H(0) of the first N frames by a coefficient β if spectral entropy-energy square roots of consecutive P frames speech signal are less than the first threshold, the coefficient β being greater than 0 and less than 1.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the determining a spectral entropy-energy square root of the speech signal based on at least one of the square root of the energy and the square root of the spectral entropy comprises:

multiplying the square root of the energy by the spectral entropy of the speech signal, to obtain the spectral entropy-energy square root of the frame of the speech signal.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the determining a spectral entropy-energy square root of the speech signal based on at least one of the square root of the energy and the square root of the spectral entropy comprises:

multiplying the square root of the spectral entropy by the energy of the speech signal, to obtain the spectral entropy-energy square root of the frame of the speech signal.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the determining a spectral entropy-energy square root of the speech signal based on at least one of the square root of the energy and the square root of the spectral entropy comprises:

multiplying the square root of the energy by the square root of the spectral entropy, to obtain the spectral entropy-energy square root of the frame of the speech signal.

5. The method according to claim 1 ,

wherein the first threshold comprises αHE(0), and a value range of α comprises [1,2].

6. The method according to claim 5 , further comprising:

determining the spectral entropy-energy square root average value according to

HE

(

0

)

=

1

N

l

=

1

N

HE

(

l

)

,

HE

(

l

)

=

H

(

l

)

*

E

(

l

)

,

wherein H(l) is a spectral entropy of an l th frame of speech signal, and E(l) is short-term energy of the spectral entropy of the l th frame of speech signal.

7. The method according to claim 5 , wherein after the determining a spectral entropy-energy square root average value HE(0) of the first N frames in the multi-frame speech signal, the method further comprises:

determining a variance of the first N frames in the speech signal; and if the variance is greater than a second threshold, performing the operation of determining a spectral entropy-energy square root average value HE(0) of the first N frames in the speech signal again.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein after the determining that the frame of the speech signal is a voiced frame if the spectral entropy-energy square root of the speech signal is greater than or equal to the first threshold, the method further comprises:

if consecutive M frames of speech signals are the voiced frames, determining that speech begins, the first frame of speech signal in the M frames of speech signals being the first voiced frame.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein after the determining that the frame of the speech signal is an unvoiced frame if the spectral entropy-energy square root of the speech signal is less than a first threshold, the method further comprises:

if consecutive R frames of speech signals are unvoiced frames, determining that a speech ends.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein after the determining that the frame of the speech signal is an unvoiced frame if the spectral entropy-energy square root of the speech signal is less than a first threshold, the method further comprises:

if there are no two adjacent frames that are voiced frames in consecutive R frames of speech signals, determining that a speech ends.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein after the determining energy and spectral entropy of a frame of speech signal, the method further comprises:

discarding the speech signal if the energy of the speech signal is greater than a second threshold; or

discarding the speech signal if the energy of the speech signal is less than a third threshold.

12. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

passing the speech signal through a high pass filter.

13. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

performing direct current removal on the k th frame of speech signal.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the multi-frame speech signal includes two adjacent frames, and the two adjacent frames share an overlapping area of acquisition points.

15. A voice activity detection apparatus, comprising: a memory storing computer program instructions; and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to execute the computer program instructions and perform:

receiving speech data, the speech data including a multi-frame speech signal, the multi-frame speech signal including a k th frame speech signal;

determining energy and spectral entropy of the k th frame speech signal;

calculating a square root of the energy the k th frame of the speech signal and/or calculate a square root of the spectral entropy the k th frame speech signal;

determining a spectral entropy-energy square root HE(k) of the k th frame speech signal based on at least one of the square root of the energy and the square root of the spectral entropy,

wherein the spectral entropy-energy square root HE(k) of the k th frame speech signal is determined according to HE(k)=√{square root over (|H(k)−H(0)|*E(k))}, wherein

H

(

0

)

=

1

N

l

=

1

N

H

(

l

)

,

H(k) is a spectral entropy of the k th frame speech signal, E(k) is a short-term energy of the spectral entropy of the k th frame speech signal, k is greater than N, and N represents first N frames in the multi-frame speech signal; and

determining that the k th frame speech signal is an unvoiced frame if the spectral entropy-energy square root of judging unit is less than a first threshold; or that the k th frame speech signal is a voiced frame if the spectral entropy-energy square root of the k th frame speech signal is greater than or equal to the first threshold,

wherein the first threshold is adjusted by: multiplying a spectral entropy-energy square root average value HE(0) of first N frames and a special entropy H(0) of the first N frames by a coefficient β if spectral entropy-energy square roots of consecutive P frames speech signal are less than the first threshold, the coefficient β being greater than 0 and less than 1.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer program instructions and perform:

multiplying the square root of the energy by the square root of the spectral entropy, to obtain the spectral entropy-energy square root of the frame of the speech signal.

17. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer program instructions and perform:

determining a spectral entropy-energy square root average value HE(0) of the first N frames in the multi-frame speech signal, wherein the first threshold comprises αHE(0), a value range of α comprising [1,2].

18. A voice activity detection device, comprising a processor and a memory connected to each other, the memory being configured to store application code, and the processor being configured to call the application code to execute:

receiving speech data, the speech data comprising a multi-frame speech signal, the multi-frame speech signal including a k th frame speech signal;

determining energy and spectral entropy of the k th frame speech signal;

calculating a square root of the energy of the k th frame speech signal and/or calculating a square root of the spectral entropy the k th frame speech signal;

determining a spectral entropy-energy square root HE(k) of the k th frame speech signal based on at least one of the square root of the energy and the square root of the spectral entropy,

wherein the spectral entropy-energy square root HE(k) of the k th frame speech signal is determined according to HE(k)=√{square root over (|H(k)−H(0)|*E(k))}, wherein

H

(

0

)

=

1

N

l

=

1

N

H

(

l

)

,

H(k) is a spectral entropy of the k th frame speech signal, E(k) is a short-term energy of the spectral entropy of the k th frame speech signal, k is greater than N, and N represents first N frames in the multi-frame speech signal; and

determining that the k th frame speech signal is an unvoiced frame if the spectral entropy-energy square root of the k th frame speech signal is less than a first threshold; or determining that the k th frame speech signal is a voiced frame if the spectral entropy-energy square root of the k th frame speech signal is greater than or equal to the first threshold,

wherein the first threshold is adjusted by: multiplying a spectral entropy-energy square root average value HE(0) of first N frames and a special entropy H(0) of the first N frames by a coefficient β if spectral entropy-energy square roots of consecutive P frames speech signal are less than the first threshold, the coefficient β being greater than 0 and less than 1.

19. The device according to claim 18 , wherein the processor is configured to call the application code to execute:

multiplying the square root of the energy by the square root of the spectral entropy, to obtain the spectral entropy-energy square root of the frame of the speech signal.

20. The device according to claim 18 , wherein the processor is configured to call the application code to execute:

determining that a speech ends if there are no two adjacent frames that are voiced frames in consecutive R frames of speech signals.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Oct 28, 2019
From: LIU, JIZHONG
To: TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY LIMITED
Reel/Frame 050840/0861 →
Priority Claims (1)
CN 201711178373.8 · Nov 22, 2017 · national
Continuity (2)
Continuation PCTCN2018116909 · Nov 22, 2018
Related Publication 20200058320A1 · Feb 20, 2020